Free Web NovelLate at night, Zona Mendes changed out of her uniform in the duty room and left the Inquisition after saying goodbye to her colleagues.
Ever since Leon had become Director, the Inquisition had expanded its manpower. In addition, scattered Magic Essence transactions had disappeared from Hamel Town, while large-scale Magic Essence trading was heavily concealed and left no trace. Cases involving heretical crimes had also decreased significantly. As a result, the lives of the Inquisitors had become much more relaxed. Most people got off work around dusk, with only a few remaining on duty at night.
Yet Zona still often chose to stay behind and work overtime.
It was not because she was diligent or ambitious, but because of Bishop Beckett’s instructions.
Zona was one of Bishop Beckett’s subordinates and also a member of the Earl’s organization. There were actually many people like her who had been planted among the Church’s lower-level operatives, and most of them took orders from Bishop Beckett.
After Bishop Beckett left the Hamel Inquisition, she and several other subordinates had been left behind to assist the current Director, Leon Set, who was also a cadre within the organization. This made it easier for him to maintain contact with the organization, especially with Bishop Beckett.
At the same time, they also served as Bishop Beckett’s eyes and ears for monitoring Leon.
Although Bishop Beckett had not given any special instructions before, he had recently issued a secret order requiring them to pay close attention to Leon’s movements.
Earlier that day, she had carried out a task described in a secret letter sent by Bishop Beckett. She was ordered to drug the prisoner Sally Hesh in the prison, then observe Sally’s condition and Leon’s reaction over the next two days.
Although she did not know what had happened between Leon and the organization, she knew what she was supposed to do.
Obey orders.
Nothing more.
After completing the poisoning task, she remained on watch in the prison until late into the night. Nothing particularly noteworthy had occurred.
Now she had handed the observation duty over to someone else and gone off shift to rest.
After leaving the Inquisition, she walked alone along the nighttime streets.
A short while later, she vaguely heard footsteps.
Faint. Intermittent.
As she walked, she casually looked around but saw no one.
Yet the instincts honed by rigorous training immediately put her on high alert.
She continued walking as though nothing was wrong while pretending to adjust her collar, slipping a hand inside her coat to confirm the weapon concealed beneath it.
In the distance, a hired carriage bearing a lantern slowly approached from the opposite direction.
Just as Zona was considering whether she should simply hire the carriage and leave, a powerful wave of dizziness suddenly struck her.
“What... is happening?” Zona clutched her chest as her breathing abruptly quickened.
She felt an icy numbness spread rapidly from her abdomen throughout her body.
Her limbs no longer seemed to belong to her.
What she did not know was that Leon had poisoned everyone Bishop Beckett had arranged within the Inquisition long ago, including her.
Within mere seconds, she collapsed to the ground with a thud, her body convulsing uncontrollably.
“Help...”
She tried to call for help, but her throat quickly lost the ability to produce sound.
Her body gradually stiffened.
Her skin slowly took on a grayish-white stone texture.
Only then did the person following her emerge from a distant alley.
The follower approached Zona.
At the same time, the hired carriage arrived beside her fallen body.
After carefully searching her and removing her weapon, the follower opened the carriage door and carried Zona inside. Then he respectfully saluted the person seated within before closing the door and calmly continuing on his way.
The temporarily halted carriage resumed moving forward.
As though nothing had happened.
Only one person had silently vanished from the street.
Inside the carriage, Leon sat in his seat, looking coldly at Zona lying by his feet.
……
Fifteen minutes later, inside a dim cellar, Zona slowly opened her eyes through a haze of grogginess.
After a moment of confusion, she suddenly jolted awake and tried to struggle.
Only to discover she could not move.
She was firmly secured to an iron chair.
Even her head was locked in place by iron restraints.
Her eyes were completely blindfolded.
A metal mouth gag held her jaws forcibly open, preventing them from closing.
Only her tongue could still move.
She tried to speak, but the forcibly opened mouth produced nothing but strange sounds.
Standing before her were Leon and Rena.
Both wore long robes and Bird-Beak Masks.
Ignoring Zona’s muffled cries, Leon inserted a soft leather tube into her throat.
Zona coughed violently from choking, but Leon remained unmoved.
He attached a funnel to the other end of the tube.
Turning toward Rena, he nodded.
Rena took out a test tube and carefully poured the blood it contained into the funnel.
The blood flowed through the tube and deep into Zona’s throat.
Unable to spit it out on her own, swallowing was her only option.
Once Leon confirmed that Zona had ingested the blood, he pulled out the feeding tube and nodded toward Rena.
Rena nodded back.
Her body rapidly transformed into a succubus form as she began using her Blessing of Allure on Zona.
After the Witch’s Blessing reached the second rank, Rena had gained far more than a flying succubus form.
The Blessing of the Blood Pact had also evolved powerful allure effects.
Now she could not only control Magical Beasts but also hypnotize humans to a certain extent.
If the target consumed her bodily fluids, the effectiveness of the allure increased dramatically. Even Blessed individuals with some resistance could be temporarily controlled.
Rena encountered no resistance.
Soon, she sensed synchronized mana fluctuations emerging within the other woman's body.
After shivering for a while, Zona suddenly stopped screaming and returned to silence.
Or rather—
A state of dullness.
“It seems... it worked,” Rena quietly informed Leon.
Only then did Leon remove Zona’s blindfold and mouth gag.
Zona’s eyes were vacant.
Her gaze lacked focus.
Her eyes were dim and lifeless.
She looked as though she had fallen asleep with her eyes open.
“I’m going to ask you some questions. Answer truthfully,” Rena said softly.
“I will obey your instructions, my master,” Zona replied in a mechanical voice.
Rena and Leon exchanged a glance.
The result was similar to their previous experiments.
Rena could use her blood to impose powerful hypnosis on others.
Those under hypnosis would completely obey her commands.
However, the mental state of the hypnotized subject became abnormal. Their independent personality entered a suppressed state.
Simply put, it was like sleepwalking.
The hypnosis also had a time limit.
When used directly, the duration varied between ten minutes and half a day depending on the target’s resistance and willpower.
When bodily fluids were used as the medium, resistance could be bypassed entirely, allowing the effect to last for a full day.
Repeated ingestion of bodily fluids over a short period significantly weakened the effect, making long-term continuous control impossible.
Against ability users, the duration dropped sharply.
Taking Leon as an example, direct allure could only leave him dazed for a moment.
Only when bodily fluids were used as the medium could the hypnosis last nearly an hour.
Furthermore, when Leon was in his Werewolf transformation state, he developed a strong resistance to allure.
Even with bodily fluids as the medium, the effect could only daze him briefly before he broke free.
This ability could not be used for long-term control.
But for interrogation—
It was exceptionally effective.
Rena quickly began asking Zona the questions Leon had prepared beforehand.
Zona answered every one of them truthfully in a flat, emotionless voice.
She admitted that she had drugged Sally.
However, she had no idea what substance she had administered.
She had merely followed Bishop Beckett’s orders.
She also revealed the list of Bishop Beckett’s subordinates and the personnel he had stationed in Hamel Town.
Earlier, when Leon had ordered his men to search her, they had already confirmed that Zona was not carrying one of Bishop Beckett’s holy relic badges.
Bishop Beckett apparently did not possess many of those precious relics.
Aside from key figures such as the Earl, he only lent them to subordinates during especially urgent missions.
Zona’s assignment was to observe for two days after administering the poison.
To contact Bishop Beckett, she was supposed to deliver a secret letter to a designated contact point.
That contact point was located within South Harbor County, not far from Hamel Town.
After listening to all the useful intelligence, Leon let out a long breath and organized his thoughts.
Bishop Beckett had appeared in the archives of the Southeastern Archdiocese several days ago.
Now that suspicion had firmly fallen upon him, and since the plan to poison Sally had been executed by subordinates under his direct orders, it was hardly surprising that he had quietly moved to the vicinity of Hamel Town.
With information about the contact point and the tracking ability of the Cursed Blood, locating Bishop Beckett within Leon’s own territory would probably not be difficult.
Leon estimated that Bishop Beckett had not gone to great lengths to conceal his movements.
There simply was no need.
From Bishop Beckett’s perspective, Leon was not a threat that warranted such caution.
Touching Bishop Beckett meant formally declaring war on the Earl.
At this stage, no one believed Leon would dare take the initiative against the Earl.
For Leon, however, that was actually an advantage.
The disparity in strength and the Earl’s underestimation of him gave him a chance to seize the initiative.
After all possible questions had been asked, Leon nodded.
“Very good.”
“Leon... are we really going to...” Rena looked at Zona and asked uneasily.
“Yes.”
Leon replied while making preparations for departure.
“Originally, I planned to devise a more thorough operation to rescue Mrs. Hesh. But there’s no time now. This time, they conveniently delivered the right candidate to us, so we’ll make use of her. I’ll handle it personally. Even if she was only following orders, we can’t leave her alive at this point. A lot more people are going to die after this.”
“...Mm.”
Rena remained silent for a while before letting out a soft sigh.
“Then before we kill her, let’s have her prepare a secret letter and send it to the contact point she mentioned,” Leon said after finishing his preparations.
To seize the initiative, he had to move fast.
Before the Earl could react, Leon had to press a knife against his throat.
The next target—
Would be Bishop Beckett.
